Did You Think to Pray?
140

Text: Mary A. Pepper Kidder (1820–1905)
Music: William O. Perkins (1831–1902)
Tune name: STOCKBRIDGE

Most of us know from experience that even a few moments devoted to prayer in the morning can change our outlook for the better throughout the day. The greater the demands of the day, the greater seems to be our need for a private communication with the Lord. This hymn’s message is a reminder of this important truth.

Each verse of this hymn expresses a distinct, important purpose for prayer. First, the “loving favor” of the Lord will serve as a protection during the day. The scripture citation at the end of the hymn (Psalm 5:3, 12) shows that this thought dates from Old Testament times:

“My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up. . . .

“For thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield.”

Second, prayer will keep us from the destructive effects of anger. To extend forgiveness to another person is to be like the Lord, who in his patience forgives his children daily.

Third, prayer will ease our burden in times of sorrow and trial. Prayer will serve as “balm of Gilead.” This expression is taken from Jeremiah 8:22: “Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there?” When we are suffering from sorrow’s wounds, we pray for an ointment to heal those wounds. The Bible Dictionary in the Latter- day Saint edition of the King James Bible explains that balm is “an aromatic gum or spice used for healing wounds. . . . A bush producing the resin from which the balm was made grew so plentifully in Gilead in O. T. times that the balm came to be known as the ‘balm of Gilead’” (Bible Dictionary, 618, s.v. “balm”). We can borrow this salve by means of our morning prayers “at the gates of day.”

The tune name, STOCKBRIDGE, honors the composer’s birthplace, Stockbridge, Vermont. The hymn entered Latter- day Saint hymnody in 1884 in the second edition of the Deseret Sunday School Union Music Book. The 1985 hymnal restored the more descriptive title to this hymn, “Did You Think to Pray?”